As a system which allows an IC card for recording money data issued by a banking organ to be used as an electronic purse, so far, there has been provided a `Value Transfer System` disclosed by International Publication No. WO91/16691 (or Japanese Patent Laid-open No. Hei 5-504643). Electronic purses each implemented by an IC card compose the `electronic-purse` system in conjunction with an account settling means for loading money into an electronic purse and controlling exact calculation. The `electronic-purse` system electronically loads money data from a bank account into a memory in an IC card, treating the IC card like an `electronic purse`. In this case, since money (or strictly speaking, money data) stored in the IC card is in actuality neither a bill nor a coin, the term `electronic money` is used in order to distinguish the money stored in an IC card from a bill or a coin. Money can be transferred from an IC card to another IC card through an account settling means. In a transfer of money, it is not necessary for the user to confirm the transferred money with a banking organ. As a result, the processing to transfer money can be carried out in the same way as transferring cash to another person. In addition, at a banking organ, electronic money can be transferred and drawn as is the case with a cash transaction.
At any rate, in many cases, transaction processing using an `electronic purse` implemented by an IC card is carried out without the need for confirmation with a banking organ. As a result, when an IC card is lost, the money stored in the IC card is also lost and it is impossible to recover the money stored in the lost IC card unless the IC card itself is found. In addition, even if the lost IC card is found by a third person, the amount of money stored therein is not visible, giving rise to a problem that the probability that the lost IC card is returned to the owner or reported to an institution issuing the IC card or a police station is very low. There has been thus a problem that money stored in an electronic purse is wasted in comparison with cash.
In addition, even if the lost IC card is reported to the institution issuing the IC card, the institution needs to follow a procedure for finding the legitimate owner of the reported IC card and returning the IC card to the owner or re-issuing a new IC card in answer to a request made by the owner of the IC card, giving rise to a problem that loads to be borne by the institution and the owner losing the IC card itself are heavy.
It is thus an object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system capable of returning a lost IC card serving as an `electronic purse` to the owner or an institution issuing the lost IC card with a high degree of efficiency without giving a troublesome load to the lost-IC-card finder of the IC issuing institution.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system capable of enhancing the rate of collection of money stored in a lost IC card by giving a finder of the lost IC card a predetermined amount of reward money.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an electronic-money collecting system capable of preventing a bad faith finder of a lost IC card from being given a reward money.